Army too stretched if Iraq buildup lasts

[rodeodance]

Source: ap




Army too stretched if Iraq buildup lasts

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring.


The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

That presents the Pentagon with several painful choices if the U.S. wants to maintain higher troop levels beyond the spring of 2008:

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/u... ;_ylt=Ati6IGkh9zKlDtw1cR.EEm6s0NUE

[OhioChick]

1. Wasn't the Military

stretched too thin about a year or two ago?

[cliss]

2. It's becoming decision time

for the Pentagon. What's more important? Hanging on to the oil in Iraq? Or do they pull US troops out of the bases we have scattered around the world?

The US has about 1.1 million military people in active duty, stationed in the US and around the world. We've currently got around 166,000 troops in Iraq.

So the have not run out of troops, but if they start moving them it will undoubtely cause instability around the world. I believe we have 50,000 troops stationed in S. Korea. Just imagine if they pulled them out. What would happen? Or how about Germany? Who really knows for sure?

Bottom line: they are willing to do ANYTHING to hold on to Iraq. Like a tapeworm that refuses to budge, they just hang on & hang on, as we hemorrhage to death financially, deaths keep piling up, whatever the cost: we are staying.

[Scooter24]

3. At this point, Bush is just buying his time until he leaves office...

leaving the poor person who gets elected to make the really difficult decisions.